The New Zealand Times. MONDAY, MAY 26, 1919. WANTED—HONEST GOVERNMENT

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10289, 26 May 1919, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. MONDAY, MAY 26, 1919. WANTED—HONEST GOVERNMENT

That, while loyally abiding by the existing contract between the two parties, the Liberal party will contest the next General Election separate and apart from the Reform party, with a definite progressive and radical policy. Such was the decision arrived at by the Liberal caucus held in Wellington on Thursday last, with the approval of the Liberal Leader and with the Acting-Liberal Leader in the chair. This decision, as was to have been expected, has occasioned no little perturbation in certain "Yes-No" quarters. The "party truce," which allowed the "stand-patters" to "stand pat," which permitted the land aggregators to go on aggregating ana the war-profiteers, the land monopolists, and the' exploiters generally to continue, practically unmolested, to exploit the people to their hearts' content —this precious "party truce" is acclaimed as having "replaced the dangerously close balance of contending parties by a. stable Government representing them both," and as having "(admirably fulfilled its purpose by enabling the country to discharge I its duty to the Empire in a manner which would have been quite impossible otherwise." The previous question—How was it that "the dangerously close balance of contending parties" came about? —is very careiully 'and very conveniently ignored; and., with" a naivete as amusing as it is amazing, it is remarked that "For Borne reason or other, it is the Liberals who have chafed most impatiently unIder the restrictions imposed by the truce, and have been looking forward most eagerly to the revival of the freedom and the, excitement of party warfare." It is a notorious fact that there is in the country at large no such "dangerously close balance ot contending parties," as there has, through the whole period of the war, [been in the House of Representatives. This House, as at present constituted, aoes not truly represent the people, and yet it has had the "gall,", as our American cousins would 6ay, to twice prolong its existence jfor another- year! At the general 'election of 1911, thanks to a faulty electoral system, the Reform Party fluked into power, though there was a two-to-one majority against it in the country as a whole; and, even under the very difficult war conditions of the general election of 1914, the Lib-eral-Labour group secured throughout the Dominion an aggregate of votes which, under an honest electoral system, would have given them a clear working majority. But the Reform Party, having deliberately and dishonestly substituted, not proportional representation, as promised, but "first past the post" for the second ballot, again fluked in with a majority of one only. Hence "the dangerously close balance of contending parties," which led "to the formation of a. "National Government" with a Reform i'arty taw.

It may be contended that, even if a Xaberal-Laibour Government had been returned to power with a working majority in 1914, as, according to the votes cast it ought to have been, the exigencies of the -world-war would, nevertheless, sooner or later have compelled the formation of a Coalition Government. But, in that case, the National Government would have been formed with a strong Liberal-Labour base, instead of with a "Reform" base; and the position -would have been very different from what it actually has been. It is very certain, for example, that under such conditions tho war-profiteers would not have been allowed the practically free hand they have enjoyed under Mr Massey's Premiership. The huge profits duo to tho war would have been, in largo part at least, taken to ipay for the war. The big landholders would havo been compelled to pay something like their full, fair share of tho cost of fighting for tho country of which they monopolise bo much. Land aggregation would havo beon sternly put down, especially in view of tho crying need for land for soldier-settlement: and so would that withholding of land from use or from its full use which is now forcing soldier-settlors and others away into the roadless back Mocks. ! Manifestly, any man who holds roaded land or land on the railway line und does not use it adequately, is failing in his duty to his country; and, by means of a stiff land tax and other I measures, the Governnjent should seo to it that he is compelled either to use tho land properly himself or part with it to those who will do so. Legislation ou these lines was ju"o' uise d by

the Liberal Leader so far iback as the general election of 1911, but up to the present ho has had no opportunity of redeeming that promise. The Reform party, which has consistently and persistently stood in the ivay of all true reform, has used the slogan, "Nothing but war-legislation during the -war," to bludgeon all who demanded the remedying of albuscs and a redress of grievances. The sterility of the warperiod, so far as domestic and especally industrial and anti-monopoly, antiprofiteering legislation is concerned, has suited the "Reformers" down to tho ground; 'but the Liberal party has very naturally chafed under this enforced inaction, and has looked forward eagerly to the time when it could shake off the Old Man of the Sea, who has so long ridden on its neck, and could set to work energetically to make up for lost time.

Wo are told that "it was to reconstruction rather than to a mere renewal of tho truce to which the Reformers' suggestion of tho combination of tho best elements of both parties on a common platform pointed" ; that, "if the public is dissatisfied with tho National Government, and is looking round for a more active leadership, it cannot bo said to regard with any enthusiasm the idea of revorting to party strife along the old lines and under the old catchword" ; and that "whether the existing parties like it or not, some measure of reconstruction is likely to be forced, upon them by the popular desire for new methods to give expression to the new ideas." But the reconstruction that the public want is a very different reconstruction from that hinted at. A combination of the so-called "best" —that is to say, the most conservative—elements of both parties to secure "all tho best places for all the best people," and to give profiteering, land-aggregation and land monopoly a new lease of life, maintaining the present high cost.of living and kicking the soldier-settler backward- from the monopolised fertile spots of country to roadless pumico lands, backblocks swamps, and well-nigh inaccessible highlands, is not at all the sort of construction that the people of New Zealand are looking for. What the present crisis demands is a combination of the truly best elements —the sane, radical, and progressive elements —in tho Liberal and the Labour parties, to give effect to a sound reconstruction policy which shall put an end to profiteering, reduce the cost of living, and be guilty of no such criminal folly as setting our returned soldiers, the best man-power of the nation, to work on backblock lands at £2 or less per acre, when, there is plenty of unused, or only very partially used, land at £2O to £4O an acre from which, with the same expenditure of labour and capital, they could produce and market at least from ten to twenty times as much.

We are told that "the position in which Parliament will find itself during the coming session will, in view of the Liberal Party's decision, be ono of great difficulty and highly unstable equilibrium" ; and that "it is not surprising .that under, such conditions.the Minister' for Internal Affairs should have hinted that there may be no session at all." But there must bo a session; and all that the present moribund, non-representative Parliament has any moral right to do is (1) to make provision for tho finances of the country till a truly representative Parliament can meet, and (2) to carry proportional representation, thus ensuring that tho new bo representative in Tact"*as' wcfl as in name. For sane and sound reconstruction — political, industrial, and social —honest government, national and local, is absolutely essential; and the first step towards honest government, whether national or local, is undoubtedly the only honest system of representation—proportional representation. Under that system such results as those of the recent British general election, and such farcical results as those of the New Zealand general ele.otionsi of. 1911 arid 1914 would bo utterly impossible. Under it the dangerous classes of both extremes would be put where they belong ; and that) is in a very small minority.